76 FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



mall 



When asked 



why water was not employed instead of saliva, the answer was, 



that water caused it to spoil. It is afterwards enveloped in 



dry leaves, and in this state is sold. The seeds of those Poppies 



which have yielded Opium are equally good for sowing the 



following year" (M. Ch. Tezier, as quoted by Mr. Pereira, 

 Med. Gaz., vol. xviii. p. 819). 



Several varieties of Opium are met with in commerce. That 



which is most prized is the Turkey, Smyrna, or Levant Opium. 



* Pliny's account of the mode of gathering and preparing Opium is interesting 

 for comparison sake, " Diagoras giveth counsell to cut the stem or stalke of the 

 blacfce Poppie, when it beginneth to sprout and swell toward the flowring time, 

 out of which there will issue a certain juice called Opium ; but Tollas adviseth to 

 make that incision when it hath bloumed, and to chuse a faire cleare day for it, 

 and that houre of the day when as the deaw thereon is dried up. Nor would they 

 have them to be cut under the head before the bloume ; but in the very head after 

 it hath done flowring, and verely there is no other kind of hearbe wherein the head 

 is cut, but this onely. The said juice of this hearbe, as well as of all other, is re- 

 ceeved in wooll ; or else, if it run but in a small quantitie, they gather it with the 

 thumbe naile, as the manner is in lectuces ; but the morrow after the incision, so 

 much the more vigilant they must be to save and gather that which is dried ; and 

 in very deed the juice of Poppies commonly runneth out in great abundance, and 

 gathereth into a thicknesse, which afterwards is stamped and reduced into little 

 trosches, and dried in the shade. * * * Now to know which is good Opium, 

 indeed the very first and principall triall is by the nose, for the true Opium is so 

 strong that a man may not endure to smell it. The second proof is by fire, for 

 the right Opium will burn clear like a candle ; and when it is put forth yeeldeth a 

 stinking sent from it in the end, which signes are never to be found in that which 

 is falsified and sophisticat, for this that is not right will not so soon take and light 

 fire ; and besides is ready oftentimes to go out. There is another experiment by 

 water ; for the good and pure Opium, beeing put in water, sendeth forth a certain 

 mist from it like a cloud, which floteth even aloft, whereas the corrupt and de- 

 praved Opium gathereth into blisters and bladders, and so bubbleth on the water. 

 And yet there is one way more admirable than the rest to trie good Opium, even 

 by the sunneshine on a summers day ; for, if it be such as it ought, it will sweal 



;hin 



To 



conclude, Mnesieles is of opinion that the best meanes to keepe and preserve 



among beans. 



lay it among 



>9 



